Climate Futures: Air

Climate Futures: Air is the latest exhibit at The Cube, created by the VISER team, inspired by the work of QUT researchers led by Distinguished Professor Lidia Morawska, Australian Laureate Fellow in the QUT School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences.

Air is essential to life on our planet. It forms our atmosphere, creates our climate, sustains ecosystems, and clean air is crucial for good health and well-being for us all. Adverse changes in the make-up of air puts us all in danger. Air pollution is mostly invisible to us. When we breath and exhale several times per minute the impact of this pollution is felt in every part of our bodies and lives.

Climate Futures: Air uncovers the hidden contexts of air pollution, from high-up in the atmosphere, down to the air we breathe. It looks at what happens in our homes, schools and work places, in our urban and natural environments, and the policies that guide the action we take.

This project sits at the intersection of art and science, a work which is visually enticing and powered by real-world research and tangible data. The vibrant, ultra-high resolution LED Wall is a creative visualisation underpinned by global-scale data collected by NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) and WAQI (World's Air Pollution: Real-time Air Quality Index). The world map view transitions to continental regions, visualising a 7 day period with a generative representation of the relationships between air quality indicators as well as wind speed and direction. Watch how through the hours the wind carries gases and particles from our cities across land and sea.